Everyone in Cuba knows that when Miguel Díaz-Canel's regime wants to shift gears, it uses the verb "to order." They did it with the "Ordenamiento Task", which dealt a fatal blow to the Cuban economy, and now they want to try it (again) with the media, especially those that fall outside the orbit of the Communist Party.

To achieve this, a new resolution (9/2025 from the Institute of Information and Social Communication) came into effect on Wednesday, May 28, which is presented as a tool to "regulate" the operation of the national publication records. It includes an article (51.1) that provides for the "temporary suspension or cancellations" of websites and serial publications without prior notification in cases where they are deemed to seriously violate "socialist principles."

But that's not all. Article 56 of the resolution adds that once the suspension or cancellation of the website or publication is implemented, if content is managed or shared through the medium, its owner may be subjected to "more severe measures." To clarify, if the content does not align with the "socialist principles" of the Communist Party, the website will be canceled, and if it is republished after the cancellation, the person in charge will face "severe penalties."

Additionally, the resolution requires hosting providers (companies that offer web hosting services) to only work with officially registered websites, which excludes independent media from the service.

Furthermore, the new regulations require the monitoring of funding sources for the media, which again is a strike against media outlets that operate outside the control of the Communist Party and its official media environment.

Obviously, this point was not addressed by the information from Canal Caribe, which only referred to cases where it is expected that violations will be notified digitally to media that incur in "serious violations of ethics and morality," as long as the regime considers that they have not adequately handled content intended for children, adolescents, people with disabilities, and the elderly.

But the main issue with the arroz con pollo is precisely the power this resolution grants the regime to cancel websites and serial publications that diverge from "socialist principles" without prior notice. Canal Caribe states that this is done to create "a fairer and healthier society," overlooking the possibility that the intention may be to control the narrative at a particularly sensitive time for the Government, which is unable to redirect the severe economic, political, migratory, demographic, health, and public health crisis facing the country.

The entry into force of this resolution 9 of 2025 coincides with the start of the first citizens' protests in Bayamo, Guantánamo and Cienfuegos, denouncing the frustration over the power outages and the hunger that plagues Cubans without a short-term solution. The regime says one day that it needs three years to control the outages and the next promises fewer power cuts in July.

It's raining on wet ground

It is not the first time that the leader Díaz-Canel has approved a regulation that restricts freedom of expression. He did so in 2018 with Decree 349, which required prior authorization to organize public and private shows and exhibitions and led Díaz-Canel, three years later, to acknowledge that they had made a mistake with its implementation. But also with the Decree 370, known as the Whip Law for publications on social media.

In the case of 349, it was a censorship instrument aimed at keeping any artistic expression that did not align with the slogans of the Communist Party out of the Cuban cultural scene. In fact, it could be considered one of the causes of the conflict that led to the massive protests on July 11, 2021.

In this case, the international reaction was swift, and the European Parliament called for the immediate repeal of Decrees 349 and 370 in Cuba, along with other laws designed to restrict freedom of expression.

The 370 law was born in 2019 and came into effect in 2020, starting with a first fine to the then collaborator of CiberCuba, Iliana Hernández. Essentially, the Ley Azote focused on activists and independent journalists. The issue now is that criticism is pouring in from all sides, and the regime is struggling to penalize those who use their social media to criticize Díaz-Canel's administration.

Attempts to control the media and social networks have not ceased. In November 2024, the PCC's media apparatus even accredited the first group of social communication inspectors, subordinate to the Institute of Information and Social Communication (IICS), with the aim of "controlling and monitoring" the information disseminated on the Island.

Then came the recommendation to tighten regulations, suggested by a Spanish communist (Carlos González Penalva, an unknown figure in Spain's media landscape), but presented on Canal Caribe as an "expert" in social networks, despite the fact that as of today he only has 566 followers on Instagram and 3,900 on the social network X, far behind Cuban influencers like La Dura (3.1 million on Insta) or Magdiel Jorge Castro, a journalist from CiberCuba, with 81,100 followers on what was formerly Twitter.

In a context of national discredit towards the official press, which is unable to connect with the audience, the vice president of UPEC, Francisco Rodríguez Cruz, had the audacity to state in March of this year that the state narrative apparatus does not respond to the political interests of the Communist Party but "to the people."

It is against this backdrop that the Social Communication Law was born, approved two years ago and which, as expected, imposes more restrictions on freedom of expression in Cuba.